''The Black Museum'' is a radio crime-drama program produced by

Harry Alan Towers Harry Alan Towers (19 October 1920 – 31 July 2009) was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 ...

, which was broadcast in the USA on the Mutual network in 1952. It was then broadcast in Europe in 1953 on

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

, a commercial radio station, and was not broadcast by the BBC until 1991. Towers was based in London, but this series was recorded in Sydney, Australia. In 1946 Towers and his mother, Margaret Miller Towers, started a company called Towers of London that sold various syndicated radio shows around the world, including ''

The Lives of Harry Lime ''The Adventures of Harry Lime'' (broadcast in the United States as ''The Lives of Harry Lime'') is an old-time radio programme produced in the United Kingdom during the 1951 to 1952 season. Orson Welles reprises his role of Harry Lime from the ...

'' with

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

, ''The Secrets of Scotland Yard'' with

Clive Brook Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor. After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States ...

, ''

Horatio Hornblower Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, an ...

'' with

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elect ...

, and a series of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

stories featuring

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Briti ...

as Holmes,

Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...

as Watson and Welles as Moriarty. Towers visited Australia in the late 1940s and set up production facilities in Sydney. ''The Black Museum'' was produced in Sydney by Creswick Jenkinson on behalf of Towers of London. It had a top-line Australian cast including Joe McCormick, plus American actor Harp McGuire. Orson Welles's introductions were recorded on tape in London, then flown to Australia to be added to the locally recorded performances. This was the first series to be produced in Australia in this way. ''The Black Museum'' was based on real-life cases from the files of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

Black Museum The Crime Museum is a collection of criminal memorabilia kept at New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Known as the Black Museum until the early 21st century, the museum came into existence at S ...

. The programme was transcribed in 1951 and was broadcast in the United States in 1952 on Mutual. More than 500 of the network's stations carried it. Ira Marion was the scriptwriter and music for the series was composed and conducted by

Sidney Torch Sidney Torch MBE (born Sidney Torchinsky; 5 June 1908 – 16 July 1990) was a British pianist, cinema organist, conductor, orchestral arranger and a composer of light music. Early life Torch was born of Russian Jewish origin to a Ukrain ...

. This same music was used for the opening credits of, and incidental music in, the 1955 film ''

They Can't Hang Me ''They Can't Hang Me'' is a 1955 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, Yolande Donlan and Anthony Oliver. It was based on a novel by Leonard Mosley. It was shot at Shepperton Studios near London. The film's sets ...

'', starring

Terence Morgan Terence Ivor Grant Morgan (8 December 1921 – 25 August 2005) was an English actor in theatre, cinema and television. He played many "villain" roles in British film but is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical ...

. Orson Welles was both host and narrator of stories of horror and mystery, based on

's collection of murder weapons and various ordinary objects once associated with historical true crime cases. The show's opening began: :"This is Orson Welles, speaking from London. :(Sound of Big Ben chimes) :The Black Museum ... a repository of death. Here in the grim stone structure on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

which houses

is a warehouse of homicide, where everyday objects ... a woman’s shoe, a tiny white box, a quilted robe ... all are touched by murder."

Robert Rietti Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Rietti; 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015), was an actor, and Oscar-nominated director of Anglo-Italian descent. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in the American, British and Ita ...

played the lead roles and Keith Pyott was often in the cast. In 2002, Towers produced ''The Black Museum'' for television and hired director Gregory Mackenzie to be the

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

and director for the anthology series using the original narration by Welles. The adaptation was shot on location in London in a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

style and the pilot starred

Michael York Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...

as the Scotland Yard Inspector Russell.

Programme format and themes

Walking through the museum, Welles would pause at one of the exhibits, and his description of an artifact served as a device to lead into a wryly narrated dramatised tale of a brutal murder or a vicious crime. In the closing: "Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum", Welles would conclude with his signature radio phrase, "I remain, as always, obediently yours". With the story themes deriving from objects in the collection (usually with the names of the people involved changed but the facts remaining true to history), the 51 episodes had such titles as "The Tartan Scarf" and "A Piece of Iron Chain" or "Frosted Glass Shards" and "A Khaki Handkerchief". An anomaly to the series was an episode called "The Letter" as this was the only story not about murder, but about

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

Broadcast history

In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the series aired on the

Mutual Network The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

in 1952. It was rebroadcast on KABC,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, in 1963–1964 and on

KUAC (FM) KUAC is a non-commercial FM radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska, broadcasting at 89.9 MHz. The station is operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It debuted on October 2, 1962, originally at 104.9 MHz, as Alaska's first non-commerci ...

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

, in 1967. Beginning on 7 May, 1953, it was also broadcast over

, sponsored by the cleaning products

Dreft Dreft is a laundry detergent in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other markets. First produced by Procter & Gamble in 1933, it was the first synthetic detergent. The Fairy brand of washing-up liquid and Cascade brand of dishwasher ...

and

Mirro The Mirro Aluminum Company was an aluminum cookware company that existed in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from 1909 to 2003. It was colloquially referred to as simply ''Mirro''. History Founding - 1940 The roots of the company can be traced to the ...

. Since the BBC carried no commercials, Radio Luxembourg aired sponsored programmes broadcast at night to the UK. In the

, there was a contemporary programme called ''

Whitehall 1212 Whitehall 1212 was the telephone number of Scotland Yard. It was introduced in 1932 (having previously been Victoria 7000) and was used by the public to contact the London Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service ( ...

'' written and directed by

Wyllis Cooper Wyllis Oswald Cooper (January 26, 1899 – June 22, 1955) was an American writer and producer. He is best remembered for creating and writing the Golden Age of Radio, old time radio programs ''Lights Out (radio show), Lights Out'' (1934&ndash ...

and broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, that was similar in scope to ''The Black Museum''. It was hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, curator of the Black Museum. It used many of the same selected cases as ''The Black Museum'', and it nearly mirrored its broadcast run. The two shows were different in the respect that, while ''Whitehall 1212'' told the story of a case entirely from the point of view of the police, starting from the crime scene, ''The Black Museum'' was more heavily dramatised and played out scenes of the actual murders and included scenes from the criminal's point of view.

Episodes

The following episodes were broadcast: *''Black Museum'' – 01 The .22 Caliber Pistol AKA Little Blue 22 *''Black Museum'' – 02 .32 Calibre Bullet *''Black Museum'' – 03 Bath Tub *''Black Museum'' – 04 The Black Gladstone Bag *''Black Museum'' – 05 The Brick *''Black Museum'' – 06 The Brass Button *''Black Museum'' – 07 Can of Weed Killer *''Black Museum'' – 08 Canvas Bag *''Black Museum'' – 09 The Car Tire *''Black Museum'' – 10 The Champagne Glass *''Black Museum'' – 11 A Claw Hammer *''Black Museum'' – 12 Door Key *''Black Museum'' – 13 Faded Tartan Scarf AKA The Yellow Scarf *''Black Museum'' – 14 Four Small Bottles *''Black Museum'' – 15 French–English Dictionary *''Black Museum'' – 16 Gas Receipt *''Black Museum'' – 17 Frosted Glass Shards *''Black Museum'' – 18 The Hammerhead *''Black Museum'' – 19 The Jack Handle *''Black Museum'' – 20 Jar of Acid *''Black Museum'' – 21 The Khaki Handkerchief *''Black Museum'' – 22 A Lady's Shoe *''Black Museum'' – 23 The Leather Bag *''Black Museum'' – 24 A Letter *''Black Museum'' – 25 The Mandolin String *''Black Museum'' – 26 Meat Juice *''Black Museum'' – 27 The Notes *''Black Museum'' – 28 The Old Wooden Mallet *''Black Museum'' – 29 The Open End Wrench *''Black Museum'' – 30 A Pair Of Spectacles *''Black Museum'' – 31 A Piece Of Iron Chain *''Black Museum'' – 32 The Pink Powderpuff *''Black Museum'' – 33 Post Card With Picture Of The Rising Sun *''Black Museum'' – 34 A Prescription *''Black Museum'' – 35 The Raincoat *''Black Museum'' – 36 Length of Sash Cord *''Black Museum'' – 37 Auto Service Card *''Black Museum'' – 38 The Sheath Knife *''Black Museum'' – 39 The Shopping Bag *''Black Museum'' – 40 Shilling *''Black Museum'' – 41 A Silencer *''Black Museum'' – 42 The Small White Boxes *''Black Museum'' – 43 The Spotted Bedsheet *''Black Museum'' – 44 The Straight Razor *''Black Museum'' – 45 The Tan Shoe *''Black Museum'' – 46 The Telegram *''Black Museum'' – 47 The Trunk *''Black Museum'' – 48 Two Bullets *''Black Museum'' – 49 Walking Stick *''Black Museum'' – 50 A Women's Pigskin Glove *''Black Museum'' – 51 The Wool Jacket

Cases

Based on original research and comparisons of the episode plot with the facts of the actual case, the below-listed

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

cases were probably used as the basis for episodes of ''The Black Museum'': * Thomas Henry Allaway – "The Telegram" * Major

Herbert Rowse Armstrong Herbert Rowse Armstrong TD MA (13 May 1869 – 31 May 1922) was an English solicitor and convicted murderer, the only solicitor in the history of the United Kingdom to have been hanged for murder. He was living in Cusop Dingle, Herefordshi ...

– "The Champagne Glass" *

Elvira Barney Elvira Enid Barney (née Mullens; ) was an English socialite and actress known professionally as Dolores Ashley. She was tried for the murder of her lover, Michael Scott Stephen, in 1932. The trial was widely reported by the British press. She wa ...

– "The .22 Calibre Pistol" * Adelaide Bartlett – "4 Small Bottles" * Frederick Browne & William Kennedy – "The Car Tyre" & "The Gas Receipt" * James Camb – "The Spotted Bedsheet" *

George Chapman George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shak ...

– "The Straight Razor" * Christopher Craig &

Derek Bentley Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was a British man who was hanged for the murder of a policeman during a burglary attempt. Christopher Craig, then aged 16, a friend and accomplice of Bentley, was accused of the murde ...

– "Two Bullets" * John Alexander Dickman – "The Tan Shoe" & "The Leather Bag" *

Samuel Herbert Dougal Samuel Herbert Dougal (15 May 1847 – 14 July 1903), a notorious womanising convicted forger, was a soldier who used his medal-winning administrative skills to ill effect. He married three times, and the first two wives died in suspicious circums ...

– "The Lady's Shoe" * Miles Giffard – "The Service Card" * Harold Greenwood – "Weed Killer" *

John George Haigh John George Haigh (; 24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer convicted for the murder of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. Haigh battered to death or shot his ...

– "The Jar of Acid" *

Neville Heath Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917 – 16 October 1946) was an English murderer who killed two young women in the summer of 1946. He was executed in Pentonville Prison, London, in October 1946. Early life and career Neville Heath was born ...

– "The Powder Puff" * Harold Hill – "The Khaki Handkerchief" * Karl Hulton & Elizabeth Jones – "The Jack Handle" * Charles Jenkins, Christopher Geraghty & Terence Rolt – "The .32 Calibre Bulle

*

Patrick Mahon The Crumbles Murders are two separate and unrelated crimes which occurred on a shingle beach located between Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay, England—locally referred to as "the Crumbles"—in the 1920s. The first of these two murders is the 1920 bl ...

– "The Gladstone Bag" * Toni Mancini – "The Hammerhead" *

Florence Maybrick Florence Elizabeth Chandler Maybrick (3 September 1862 – 23 October 1941) was an American woman convicted in the United Kingdom of murdering her husband, cotton merchant James Maybrick. Early life Florence Maybrick was born Florence Elizabet ...

– "Meat Juice" * William Henry Podmore – "The Receipt" * Dr. Edward Pritchard – "The Walking Stick" * Florence Ransom – "A Woman's Pigskin Glove" * John Robinson – "The Trunk" * Alfred Arthur Rouse – "The Mallet" *

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters Edith Jessie Thompson (25 December 1893 – 9 January 1923) and Frederick Edward Francis Bywaters (27 June 1902 – 9 January 1923) were a British couple executed for the murder of Thompson's husband Percy. Their case became a ''cause c ...

– "The Sheath Knife" *

August Sangret August Sangret (28 August 1913 – 29 April 1943) was a French-Canadian soldier, convicted and subsequently hanged for the September 1942 murder of 19-year-old Joan Pearl Wolfe in Surrey, England. This murder case is also known as the "Wigwam M ...

– "The Brass Button" * James Townsend Saward (alias "Jim the Penman") – "The Letter" * Henry Daniel Seymour – "The Claw Hammer" *

George Joseph Smith George Joseph Smith (11 January 1872 – 13 August 1915) was an English serial killer and bigamist who was convicted and subsequently hanged for the murders of three women in 1915, the case becoming known as the Brides in the Bath Murders. As we ...

– "The Bath Tub" *

Madeleine Smith Madeleine Hamilton Smith (29 March 1835 – 12 April 1928) was a 19th-century Glasgow socialite who was the accused in a sensational murder trial in Scotland in 1857. Background Smith was the first child (of five) of an upper-middle-class ...

– "Small White Boxes" * Frederick Stewart – "The Frosted Glass Shards" * George Stoner – "The Brickbat" *

Norman Thorne Norman Thorne (c. 1902 – 22 April 1925) was an England, English Sunday school teacher and chicken farmer who was convicted and hanged for what became known as the chicken run murder.

– "The Wool Jacket" & "The Spectacles" *

Jean-Pierre Vaquier Jean-Pierre Vaquier (14 July 1879 – 17 August 1924) was a French inventor and murderer. He was convicted in Britain of murdering the husband of his mistress by poisoning him with strychnine. Vaquier was born in Niort-de-Sault on Bastille Da ...

– "The Dictionary" * Nurse

Dorothea Waddingham Dorothea Nancy Waddingham (1899 – 16 April 1936) was an English nursing home matron who was convicted of murder in the United Kingdom. Life Dorothea Waddingham was born Dorothy Nancie Merelina Allan Chandler, with her parents marrying a year ...

– "The Prescription" *

William Herbert Wallace William Herbert Wallace (29 August 1878 – 26 February 1933) was an Englishman convicted in 1931 of the murder of his wife, Julia, in their home in Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield district. Wallace's conviction was later overturned by the ...

– "The Raincoat" *

Robert Wood Robert Wood may refer to: Art * Robert E. Wood (painter, born 1971), Canadian landscape artist * Robert William Wood (1889–1979), American landscape artist * Robert Wood (artist), accused and acquitted of the Camden Town murder Military * R ...

– "The Postcard" Episodes yet to be matched with true case histories are: * The Canvas Bag * The Door Key * The Faded Tartan Scarf * The Iron Chain, Piece of * The Mandolin String * Notes – Kilroy was Here * The Open End Wrench * The Sash Cord, Length of * The Shilling * The Shopping Bag * The Silencer

Comparisons with source material

*Two episodes, "The Car Tyre" and "The Gas Receipt," were the same story with minor differences between the two. Another pair of episodes, "The Baby's Jacket" and "The Spectacles," were also based on the same case, as were "The Tan Shoe" and "The Leather Bag." *Four famous murder cases were dramatised on ''The Black Museum'':

, the "Acid Bath Murderer";

, the "Brides in the Bath Murderer"; Adelaide Bartlett, whose husband died from

chloroform Chloroform, or trichloromethane, is an organic compound with chemical formula, formula Carbon, CHydrogen, HChlorine, Cl3 and a common organic solvent. It is a colorless, strong-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to ...

poisoning; and

, who allegedly used

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

from fly-paper to murder her husband

James Maybrick James Maybrick (25 October 1838 – 11 May 1889) was a Liverpool cotton merchant. After his death, his wife, Florence Maybrick, was convicted of murdering him by poisoning in a sensational trial. The "Aigburth Poisoning" case was widely report ...

. *In "The Open End Wrench" it's mistakenly stated that the culprit was executed in

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

. No twentieth-century executions were carried out in Dartmoor. Built during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

to contain French and American

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

, it was, after lying idle from 1815 to 1850, later commissioned as a convict

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

and used for dangerous long-term prisoners only. *The dramatised story of "The Hammerhead" was changed to make the victim's sister the murderer instead of the boy friend. *The episode "Small White Boxes" is the only story in which the real names were used rather than pseudonyms.

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
*Listen to ** *
Zoot Radio, free ''The Black Museum'' old time radio show downloads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Museum American radio dramas 1951 radio programme debuts 1952 radio programme endings Anthology radio series Mutual Broadcasting System programs category:History of the Metropolitan Police